Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
other animals. Molluscs show a great specialization
of ecological niches in freshwater environments,
making them more vulnerable to modifi cations in
their environment (Bouchet
1992
; Lydeard et al.
2004
). Freshwater environments are some of the
most fragile and highly threatened ecosystems in
the world. Consequently, molluscs in the fresh-
water systems have suffered a severe decline in
the diversity, distribution and abundance due to
human-induced alteration of habitats, pollution,
siltation, deforestation, poor agricultural prac-
tices, the destruction of riparian zones and inva-
sion by introduced species (Biggins et al.
1995
;
Pimm et al.
1995
). In India, because of urbaniza-
tion to accommodate more and more people by
destructing natural habitat like lakes, pools,
ditches, small water bodies, making dams, etc.,
lead to extinction of species from that area within
a very short time span. Speciation is a natural
procedure which is controlled by natural selec-
tion, but loss of speciation by human being is a
great loss of biodiversity with unasserted valu-
able assets. Agricultural and urban water pollu-
tion, over harvesting, dams, urban development
and mining are the major threats to freshwater
molluscs today.
(d) Identifi cation of endangered habitats and
threatened species
(e) Identifi cation of stocks of molluscs of
potential use in fi sheries, the shell trade,
and biomedical research
2. Establish baseline from distributional infor-
mation available in systematic works and
unpublished information for mapping habitat
and at species level.
Conservation Status of Freshwater
Mollusca in India
According to a report of IUCN, seven species
(12 %) are assessed as threatened which are
Cremnochonchus syhadrensis
,
C. carrinatus
,
Arcidopsis footei
and
Pseudomulleria dalyi
are
assessed as Endangered and
Cremnochonchus
conicus
,
Parreysia khadakvasiensis
and
Scaphula
nagarjunai
are assed as vulnerable. The majority
(88 %) are assed as least concern (Aravind et al.
2010
). However, much on the conservation status
is not adequately known in the absence of base-
line data on their distribution and population with
respect to time and space and therefore, more
information is required on this.
Conservation Strategies
and Implementation of Key Models
Role of Govt. Organizations
Towards Freshwater Mollusca
Conservation and Management
1. Conservation strategies for freshwater mollusca
should emphasize establish biological moni-
toring programmes at the local level to aid in
the assessment of the current status of regional
molluscan diversity. Monitoring programmes
are multipurpose management tools which
will provide for:
(a) Data on the biotic and abiotic characteris-
tic of the environment which identify
regions of greatest molluscan diversity
(b) Immediate warning of nonacceptable
impacts of human activities and their
waste products on the environment
(c) A long-term database to evaluate and
forecast natural changes and impacts of
human activities
The Zoological Survey of India, since its incep-
tion, has in its custody and care collections of the
natural history museum, in Calcutta, India, that
are over 200 years old, as well as subsequent
collections made by scientists and staff of ZSI
since 1916. As per Section 39 of the Biological
Diversity Act 2002 of India, ZSI is notifi ed as
Designated National Repository for Zoological
Collections
(NZC) of India. The NZC housed at
ZSI now contains more than 3,000,000 authenti-
cally identifi ed specimens comprising over
90,000 known species of animals. The NZC, the
national heritage
of the country, was acquired from
the museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
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